


getting warmer, getting cold

by SleepingReader, twilighteve



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Episode: s04e08 The Treacherous Treasure Hunt of Forrest Fenn, Gen, Psychic Abilities, Psychic Ryan Bergara, au in which shane is warm and ghosts run away from him, ryan sees dead people, shane repels ghosts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 06:49:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17299802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepingReader/pseuds/SleepingReader, https://archiveofourown.org/users/twilighteve/pseuds/twilighteve
Summary: Shane and Ryan both knew spirits made Ryan cold, and Shane was somehow able to bring warmth back to his limbs. They didn’t think Shane’s warmth was like some sort of weird metal detector that can point them to the treasure, though.





	getting warmer, getting cold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SleepingReader](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepingReader/gifts).



> context: this is somewhat related to my idea for [lend me your warmth, keep the cold at bay](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14952701), but this can be read as standalone. the only thing you need to know is that ryan sees ghosts and shane makes them go away and is warm.

 

The airport bustled with activity, and Ryan and Shane stared in contentment, waiting for their boarding time. The hunt for the Forrest Fenn treasure was on, but for now they had the chance to relax.

“Do you need to hold my hand?” Shane offered.

“Nah. Not much activity here,” Ryan answered, scanning the airport. There weren’t many ghosts around, just some that followed specific people. The cold wasn’t even bothering him the slightest.

“Okay then. If you need to, just ask.”

Trying to kill his boredom, Ryan took out his camera and started rolling. “Alright, we’re at the airport,” he said, letting the camera capture the rows of people waiting for their flights and keeping Shane focused at the center. “We’re about to embark on a great quest.”

“Smells like treasure,” Shane said, leaning forward in the rickety chair of the airport gate and drawing a laugh out of Ryan. The airport speakers chimed off, announcing the boarding for their flight. Quick, skillful hands immediately put the camera back into the case and they went to board their planes.

There was a slight blur of ghostly activity, but it was nothing Ryan couldn’t handle. A few ghosts sent curious glances his way, but as usual Shane’s warmth chased them away. The plane, however, was blissfully clean of any ghostly activity. Being relatively new meant it didn’t house any spirit, and everyone in the flight just happened to have no ghost attached to them. With a content sigh, Ryan rested his head next to the window, lazily filming the wing of the plane and the clouds below. No wisps of ghostly smoke had followed him through the tunnel, no ghostly hand had held his while he boarded. No body apart from Shane’s in the chair next to him. Up in the air, it was finally quiet.

In the seat next to Ryan’s, Shane’s warmth seemed to have intensified. He didn’t need a jacket in the flight, which was something new, but not unwelcome. He took off the jacket and stuffed it under the seat in front of him. He instantly regretted it, already lacking legroom, so he held it on his laps instead.

Ryan nudged Shane’s hand, a grin on his lips. “What will you get with the treasure later? I’m going to get a Ferrari.”

“Hotdaga On Ice,” Shane replied, completely serious. “I’ll credit you and everything.”

“Okay, that’s enough of that,” Ryan said dryly, and turned his back against Shane and closed his eyes to take a nap. Shane only laughed.

The trip to their hotel was uneventful, but the warmth stayed a constant at the back of Shane’s neck. It twined around his feet as he tried to sleep, and he tossed and turned, knowing he wouldn’t get good sleep and hoped it wouldn’t show in his face in the morning. To his relief, it didn’t, and he giddily put on his ‘hunting getup’ and sat at the edge of the bed.

“To be honest, I feel kind of stupid,” he admitted, mostly to himself. He was half expecting Ryan to come out of the bathroom and laugh at him, but instead he came out wearing what was basically Indiana Jones cosplay, and Shane was stunned speechless.

“Alright, ready to go,” Ryan announced, then turned with a soft, “actually,” and put on a brown leather jacket. He accepted Shane’s tongue-tied stare and grinned, a touch of nervousness in his eyes. “Dress for the job you want, right?”

A laugh burst out of Shane’s lips. He knew Ryan was a big Indy fan, but he definitely didn’t think he would actually dress as Indy while going on a treasure hunt. “Yeah,” he finally said when he found his words.

“Well don’t laugh,” Ryan chided, and the nervousness was gone completely, replaced by amusement. “You look like Owen Grady, from Jurassic World. You happy with that look?”

Shane wheezed and tried to keep his laugh under control. “I’m happy with my look. I’m actually pretty happy with yours too!”

“Just think, when they take our pictures for the papers, this is what we’re gonna be wearing,” Ryan said as they walked out of their hotel room, still grinning.

They walked to the car, all laugh, and tiny pinpricks of heat stabbed Shane at the small of his back. He rubbed at it and opted to ignore it. It grew as they drove to the river. By the time they realized their first solve was a bust, it had grown to envelope his whole back. He squirmed, trying to chase away the pinpricks of heat, but to no avail.

“You okay?” Ryan asked when he noticed Shane rolling his shoulders for the umpteenth time.

“I’m fine,” Shane answered. “Just… it’s kind of hot, don’t you think?”

Ryan blinked. “I guess?” He shrugged. “I mean, we’ve been moving around, so I guess? I can’t really tell.” His eyes darted about the trees, catching wisps of white. “There are some spirits around.”

“Oh.” Shane casted his gaze around despite knowing he wouldn’t be able to see the spirits – not without touching Ryan, at least. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. The spirits are mostly territorial, I think, they’re not getting closer.” He shrugged again. “Come on, we should get going. I don’t want to lose daylight.”

They drove again, and Shane couldn’t help but notice the warmth intensifying with each passing minute. It lessened, just a little bit, whenever they reached a bend in the road of some sort. A thought struck, and Shane couldn’t help but inwardly scoff at it. The idea was silly.

But his mind _was_ the mind that gave birth to the masterpiece that was Hotdaga, so maybe…

Well. It was an idea. Shane could let it simmer a bit before doing anything with it. If it turned out to be relevant, he’d bring it up to Ryan.

The warmth stayed at the back of his mind, so much that he was starting to get distracted. He barely listened to the local lady who gave them directions to their third solve, knowing Ryan would have it etched into his mind as clearly as a newly carved statue. The warmth intensified even more as they drove down the road and reached the creek, and by the time they started their trek Shane had taken off his vest and bunched it up in his hand. There was no sense of going back to put it in the car, after all.

They took a path, and the warmth waned. Shane hesitated in his steps, suddenly reminded of his idea, and spoke up, “Hey, Ryan?”

“What?” Ryan asked back, turning around.

“You know how you said I’m warm?” Shane began. “Like when you’re cold because of the spirits, holding my hand and staying around me helps you keep warm?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Okay, um, do you know that game children play when they look for things, when they go _getting warmer_ when they get close to the thing and _getting colder_ when they get far?”

“Yeees…?” Ryan answered, drawing the _e_ as he frowned thoughtfully.

“Well, uh, I was getting really warm when we were going to this general area but once we chose this road from that forked path there I’ve kind of gotten cooler? So maybe we should get back and get to the other path?” Shane winced as he spoke, feeling silly that he would actually propose the idea to Ryan. It was relevant, though, right? It should be. He wanted that treasure, Ryan wanted that treasure. This was the least he could do, right?

Ryan blinked slowly. “You’re saying that your ghost-repelling warmth is also at the same time able tell you whether or not we’re close to the treasure.”

Shane winced again. “It’s only speculation at this point, but…”

“It’s kinda weird, but alright,” Ryan shrugged. “Do we just go back to that intersection, then?”

Shane blinked. “Wait, what? You believe me?”

Ryan stared at him wryly. “I see ghosts since I was a kid, big guy. Someone can tell me they see countdowns to people’s date of death on their heads like in Death Note and I’d just be like, okay.” He tilted his head. “You’re saying that you’re getting really warm?”

“Yeah, uncomfortably so,” Shane admitted. He squirmed again. Ryan frowned again at this and hovered a hand by Shane’s neck, and immediately pulling back.

“Shit, man, I can _feel_ the heat even without touching you,” Ryan said. “How are you still wearing clothes? I’d have stripped since earlier.”

“And let the mosquitoes feast on my naked chest? No thanks,” Shane retorted dryly. He turned to walk back to the intersection. “Come on. It’s getting cloudy. I really hope we wouldn’t have to walk around in the rain.”

“Are you sure you’re okay, though?” Ryan asked again as he followed. “You’re practically burning up. You don’t have a fever, don’t you? You don’t look like you’re sick, at least.”

“I’m not sick. I’m just really uncomfortable.”

Ryan’s lips quirked up. “All hot and bothered?”

Shane wheezed out a laugh. “Yes, Ryan, all hot and bothered. Come on, quit playing around. We have a treasure to hunt.”

They did, however, end up having to walk around it the rain. Contrary to Shane’s initial hesitance, the small drizzle provided small comfort in form of little specks of coolness when it splashed against his skin and clothes. As they passed numerous trees, it became clear to Shane that the warmth in his back gradually lessened.

“Hey, we need to go back,” he said. “Let’s go left a bit. I’m getting cooler.”

Ryan raised a brow and followed Shane’s instruction. “This is a lot more convenient than just following clues in the poem,” he commented. They parsed through the trees, keeping a lookout for the white blaze.

“More to the left,” Shane instructed again after a while, and Ryan complied. Soon they had adopted a search pattern, going in a spiral and going closer to the center little by little. It did, however, get redundant after a while.

“Left,” Shane said.

“That’s another 360, but okay,” Ryan muttered, partly to himself.

Shane sighed. “This is weird. Usually it’s you who gets the job to sense for weird stuff. Left.”

“Don’t say weird stuff,” Ryan protested, nose wrinkling. “Spirits used to be living, breathing humans.”

“I said what I said. Left.”

“That’s _another 360_ ,” Ryan sighed, exasperated, but complied all the same.

“All I’m saying is that we need to get a little bit more to the left,” Shane said placatingly.

“We’ve been going a little bit more to the left since the beginning of time,” Ryan grumbled sarcastically. “Look, we’ve been circling this area, like, ten times, and the circle isn’t getting any smaller. Are you – wait.” He looked up to meet Shane’s eyes.

Shane looked back with withering gaze. “I didn’t realize.”

“We’re dumb.”

“We’re both dum-dums, yes.” Shane looked around, pulling at his shirt so it didn’t stick to his sweaty chest. “So it should be very close. Where’s the white blaze, though?”

“Should be around here,” Ryan answered, sharp eyes sweeping the trees. He glanced at Shane. “You’re getting really sweaty. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, but I’ll definitely need to drink a lot later.” That was an understatement, but Shane didn’t want to worry Ryan too much. Truth to be told, he was so hot it was getting hard to think. The heat was at the forefront of his mind, enveloping his back, stabbing pinpricks at his chest, squeezing the blood out of his heart. But he was fine, mostly. He was still standing.

“You sure?” Ryan asked, frown deep enough to be filled with enough water to create a lake. “If you’re not, we can go back. I’d rather not have the treasure than have you dying. Cause people already did, looking for this.”

“I’m sure,” Shane assured. “I just want that treasure real bad, Ry. _I need that treasure_.”

“I mean, yeah, but – “

“I need it to make the production for Hotdaga on Ice.”

The concern in Ryan’s eyes immediately wrinkled, and he sent a stare dry enough to turn the lake into a desert. “I don’t know why I was worried,” he grumbled, then looked away.

Shane chuckled, ignored the burning heat in his chest that crawled up his neck, and resumed looking. He paced within the radius of the circle he and Ryan had managed to create. “If the white blaze in question is just the color white, I guess these trees here _are_ white. I’m not sure if I’d call them blazing white, but – “

His words stuck in his throat, and he managed to eke out a choked sound. All of a sudden the embers that had been sleeping under his skin blazed into life, and everything was white-hot, and all he could see and feel was the heat of a star at the brink of being reborn into a black hole. All he could hear was static and crackling, and he could taste the heat of the blazing star upon his tongue. The white-hot blaze that coursed his veins reigned, and suddenly Shane knew that he was turning into a supernova, and human beings weren’t supposed to contain the explosion of a star.

Cold, cold hands snagged his and chill snaked its way to his heart, cooling him to his core. Pushing through the static, Shane could hear Ryan calling him, asking what was wrong, but the burning felt like it had fried all his senses to charcoal. Shane blinked the white spots from his vision, feeling like his eyes had been boiled from the inside out. Gradually, though, Ryan’s coolness seeped deep enough into him that he felt like a relatively functional human being.

“Shane?” Ryan asked again, for the umpteenth time. “Shane, answer me. Are you okay?”

Shane blinked. Instead of answering, he looked down and noticed the flowering shrubberies underneath his feet. Wordlessly, he crouched down to the ground, careful not to let go of Ryan’s hold. After a moment of hesitation, Ryan followed.

Carefully, Shane pushed the leaves and the white flowers out of the way. When he saw what was hidden beneath, his breath caught, and he let his fingers brush over the cool, metallic edge of the small trunk. He looked up and met Ryan’s gaze, and found that they were wide, wide, wide, full of wonder and gleaming with excitement.

As the uncomfortable warmth leeched off of him and another sort of giddy warmth bloom shyly in his chest, Shane let a smile bloom in his lips. “I think we found it.”

**Author's Note:**

> so this was written for SleepingReader who proposed the idea of shane using warmth to find the treasure. in fact, the first part was written by her, up to where the boys drove to the river, and i did some editing on it. this was fun to write, and i hope you like it!


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